Notes from the Editor: The New Year—A New Beginning by Jim Stenson

First and foremost, we want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. In this issue, we also have a little housekeeping to get out of the way. The first housekeeping item is the integration of magazines. Starting in January 2014, Integrated Digital Publishing will incorporate The Contemporary Sportsman (TCS) and The Contemporary Wingshooter (TCW) into one glorious magazine. We are taking the best of both magazines and publishing it under The Contemporary Sportsman title.  

    With this transition, TCS will now be a bimonthly rather than a quarterly magazine. Starting in the fall of 2014, Integrated Digital publishing will also publish two additional issues; a travel issue dedicated to wing shooting in the fall and a travel issue dedicated to fly fishing in the spring. Our readers and advertisers have been trying to persuade us to move to a bimonthly format for years and IDP has wanted to include two travel issues a year since its inception. The integration of TCS and TCW is the perfect solution.
    If you love, TCW, do not fear. IDP will leave The Contemporary Wingshooter’s website up for the next six months so readers can still enjoy and download previous issues. The TCS iPad app will also still be available through iTunes to follow suit.
    The second housekeeping issue is the introduction of IDP’s New Projects such as Discover Ranches. For our readers who might not be familiar, Integrated Digital Publishing (IDP) is the parent company of The Contemporary Sportsman and The Contemporary Wingshooter. IDP is a traditional publishing company and much more. We specialize in web development, marketing and advertising, multimedia and implementation, graphic design, and full video production. IDP has now teamed up with PBS and The Top 50 Dude Ranches to help producer Jody Dahl’s (owner of The Top 50 Dude Ranches) newest project, Discover Ranches. Discover Ranches will air in the spring of 2015. There will be six one-hour shows airing in prime time.
    Discover Ranches, a first-of-its-kind travel series, airing nationally on public television, takes the viewer to the heart of ranch vacations around the world, uncovering their unexpected and fascinating culture, cuisine, architecture, history, and ecology.
    The award-winning production team focuses on creating an educational, informative, and high-quality program that is dynamic and entertaining with the ultimate aim of bringing awareness to ranches as vital institutions and the important role they play in land management and conservation. Viewers are introduced to the people who help take care of this earth—and to a wide variety of the heartlands many have never seen or experienced. The focus on ranch vacations is about a lifestyle, not just about cowboys and horses, which appeals to a wide audience. This series is dedicated to broadening our concept of ranches and ranch-style vacations.
    The concept includes conservation, sustainability, and protection of the land—the wise and shared use of our natural resources. Ranches are vital to our native rangelands. The show illustrates why ranchers were considered the first conservationists. Viewers get an introduction to the down-to-earth connection to the resources that sustain us all. Please make sure to follow our progress on The Contemporary Sportsman Blog—The Guide Shack.
    Renewed commitment to conservation is another housekeeping item to be addressed. Ardent readers of IDP’s magazines know of IDP’s commitment to the environment, and especially the environments where we ply our trade—which happens to be just about everywhere. In the upcoming year, TCS will be even more diligent when it comes to conservation issues. Anyone who spends anytime in the field or on the water cannot help but feel the pressure on the land brought on by overdevelopment and pollution. The issues are never easy; solutions never certain or undisputed. Traditionally, it has, therefore, been taboo for outdoors magazine to take sides and actually have an opinion. At IDP, the attitude is: if not us, then who.
    Our final housekeeping item is to tell you about the magazine’s continued passion to include lifestyle in its pages. The staff at The Contemporary Sportsman feels strongly that what makes fly fishing and wing shooting so appealing is not exclusively the act of fishing or hunting in itself, but the friendships we make, the foods we eat, the libations in which we partake and the aesthetics of the places in which we fish and hunt, we enjoy. We are passionate about this and in the new years to come, we will continue weave these concepts into the fabric of the stories we tell. Our readers have been clamoring for more lifestyle stories; especially stories that pertain to food and libations—maybe more to the point recipes—and please don’t for forget the photos. We hear you and will deliver in the upcoming issues without sacrificing the existing content.
    In short, Integrated Digital Publishing is growing and evolving in an attempt to bring you the best outdoor magazine on the planet. We appreciate our readers and understand we wouldn’t exist if it were not for you. Again, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
    P.S. Don’t forget that pets deserve Christmas presents too and in most cases more than we do.

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